KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 â€” Datuk Seri Najib
Razak
confirmed today that the missing Malaysia
Airlines
jetliner MH370 â€œendedâ€ its journey in the
southern
Indian Ocean, a location he described as
remote and
far from any possible landing site. The prime
minister, speaking at an emergency press
conference at the Putra World Trade Centre
(PWTC)
here, stopped short, however, of saying the
Boeing
777 aircraft that has been missing for 17 days
now,
had crashed into the vast ocean. He said fresh
data gleaned from British satellite firm
Inmarsat confirmed that the plane had
continued its
journey towards the southern Indian Ocean
and not
along the northern arc, which was one of the
possible sites identified earlier. â€œIts last position
was in the middle of the Indian
Ocean west of Perth. This is a remote
location... far
from any possible landing site.
â€œIts last position was in the middle of the
Indian
Ocean west of Perth. This is a remote
location... far
from any possible landing site. â€œIt is therefore
with deep sadness and regret that I
must inform you that according to this new
data,
flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian
Ocean,â€
he said. Explaining, Najib said he was informed
of the
development by representatives from the UKs
Air
Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB). He said
Inmarsat had performed more calculations
on data it had collected earlier from MH370s
track
marks, using a type of analysis â€œnever before
usedâ€ in such an investigation.

The somber-
faced Najib then urged the media to
respect the families of those on board and
allow
them some space to grieve, saying tonights
news
would hit them hard.

A press conference will be held tomorrow to
shed
more light on the investigation, which has
now
moved into a search and recovery operation
instead
of a search and rescue effort.

The Boeing 777
aircraft disappeared off the coast of
Kota Baru, Kelantan, less than an hour after
take-off
at 12.41am on March 8 and has remained
missing
ever since.

Early investigations saw searchers
concentrated on
the waters off Malaysias east coast â€” in the
South
China Sea and between Malaysia and Vietnam
â€”
where the plane was last heard from before it
lost
contact with the Subang Air Traffic Control
(ATC).
Early investigations saw searchers
concentrated on
the waters off Malaysias east coast â€” in the
South
China Sea and between Malaysia and Vietnam
â€”
where the plane was last heard from before it
lost
contact with the Subang Air Traffic Control
(ATC). But local military radar later spotted the
plane flying
westwards, forcing the authorities to redirect
its
search efforts to the Straits of Malacca. More
information from foreign military and satellite
data then confirmed the planes flight to the
west of
Malaysia, hundreds of miles away from its
original
flight path to Beijing. According to data from
British satellite firm Inmarsat
on March 14, its satellite registered â€œroutine,
automated signalsâ€ from the missing Malaysia
Airlines aircraft during its flight from Kuala
Lumpur. On March 15 â€” a week after MH370s
disappearance â€” Najib told a press conference
that
Malaysia would call off the search at the South
China
Sea and Straits of Malacca. Search troops were
then redirected troops to scour
two corridors â€” a northern arc from northern
Thailand to the border of Kazakhstan and
Turkmenistan in central Asia, or a southern
one from
Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean. On
March 20, authorities in Australia announced
what
they said was a possible breakthrough in the
two-
week hunt for MH370. Satellite images taken
by DigitalGlobe, a Colorado
satellite imaging company, four days earlier
showed
at least two objects in the Indian Ocean, south
of the
search zone for MH370 that Australia was
leading.

The largest of the objects found measured 24
metres
or 79 feet in length, Australian Maritime Safety
Authority (AMSA) Emergency Response
division
general manager John Young said at then.
Since then, much focus has been given to the
search
south of the vast Indian Ocean.

Over the weekend and earlier today, several
reports
of alleged â€œdebrisâ€ streamed it from the
French,
Australian and Chinese â€” some picked up by
search
planes, some via satellite images.